Ransomware attacks have struck government entities across the nation this week with West Haven, Conn., the Indiana National Guard and Muscatine, Iowa being targeted.
West Haven almost immediately succumbed to the cybercriminals threat and paying what city officials called a “one-time fee” of $2,000 after having 23 of its servers encrypted from an attack that hit October 16, The Hartford Courant reported. The cybercriminals did release the encrypted files shortly after the ransom was paid.
West Haven officials do not believe any information was removed from their system and are taking steps to shore up their network to prevent future attacks.
In a separate incident the city of Muscatine, Iowa was struck with a ransomware attack on October 17. The city has released few details other than its financial and other servers are affected and the city’s IT staff are working to isolate the problem servers and restore service.
The Indiana National Guard reported a non-military server that contains the personal information of civilian and military personnel was hit with ransomware, according to WRTV. The Guard intends to notify those whose information was stored on the server. No additional information is available.
Also this month the Onslow Water and Sewer Authority (ONWASA) in Jacksonville, N.C. was hit with a ransomware attack all but shut down its computer operations. ONWASA, which is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Florence, reported that its system came under attack from what it believes to be the EMOTET trojan on October 4, resulting in its system being overwhelmed about nine days later.
